The calico cat is not an actual breed of pootie but the result of an interplay of sex linked genetics. They are usually female, although it is possible for a calico to be a male. They must possess three colors to be considered a calico.
October 6, 2007 archive
Oct 06 2007
Ethical Knots: Life and Death Edition
Being the first, perhaps, in an occasional series on various ethical tight spots. Together in the threads may we untangle and tangle the most intricate problems. Perhaps this will contribute, however obliquely, to The Manifesto Project.
What should I do?
If it were always absolutely clear what it is that we should do, there would be no need for “ethics” with various modes of making just and reasoned decisions.
Ethics and complication, ethics and uncertainty, ethics and danger, ethics and risk, they travel together. Called upon to exercise your ethical judgement, when there is a true test, it is because you find yourself in an impossible situtation, where none of the outcomes clearly announces itself as the right one.
Oct 06 2007
Love Songs for Joshua
The puppy is Ben who is the genetic perfection of a German Shepherd. Ben grew up taking care of Joshua and now he takes care of an autistic boy in upstate New York. The boy is Joshua who is the genetic perfection of a human being and a son, my son.
Oct 06 2007
Pony Party: Sky Edition
Sometimes I like to sit outside in the early evening or morning and look up at the sky. I like to imagine that somewhere there is another person looking up at the sky thinking the exact same thoughts I am.
Oct 06 2007
Music: The Sound of Torture & War
And he was left in a room soldiers blithely called The Disco, a place where Western music rang out so loud that his interrogators were, in Qutaji’s words, forced to “talk to me via a loudspeaker that was placed next to my ears.”
I have an idea that everyone, regardless of location or nationality wants one thing more than any other in the world: to love and to be loved. I think there is a moment in everyone’s lives when they understand love, whether it is making love, holding a newborn infant, or having an honest and intimate conversation. The feeling is undeniable in these precious moments. Similarly, there is a breathtaking moment with a song that makes a positive difference in our lives.
Oct 06 2007
We Shall Overcome
They call us bloggers.
But we are much more than that. We are the conscience of the world. We are the voice of the powerless. We are the light in an age of darkness.
The politicians and profiteers and pundits ignored us. Then they laughed at us. Now they’re fighting us.
So be it.
We will not believe their lies. We will not worship their generals. We will not condone their war crimes. We are a global movement for justice and peace. Some of us live in North America, some of us live in Europe, some of us live in Asia, or Africa or South America. But being born in different lands no longer isolates believers in justice and peace from one another.
We’ve been on a long journey already and it’s far from over, but nothing worthwhile ever comes easy.
We shall overcome. Someday . . .
We shall live in peace. Someday . . .
Until that day comes, we will not be silent, we will not be afraid, we will not give up, we will never stop seeking a better world.
Oct 06 2007
The Morning News
The Morning News is an Open Thread
From Yahoo News Top Stories
1 Scandal brewing at Oral Roberts
By JUSTIN JUOZAPAVICIUS, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 30 minutes ago
| TULSA, Okla. – Twenty years ago, televangelist Oral Roberts said he was reading a spy novel when God appeared to him and told him to raise $8 million for Roberts’ university, or else he would be “called home.”
Now, his son, Oral Roberts University President Richard Roberts, says God is speaking again, telling him to deny lurid allegations in a lawsuit that threatens to engulf this 44-year-old Bible Belt college in scandal. Richard Roberts is accused of illegal involvement in a local political campaign and lavish spending at donors’ expense, including numerous home remodeling projects, use of the university jet for his daughter’s senior trip to the Bahamas, and a red Mercedes convertible and a Lexus SUV for his wife, Lindsay. |
Oct 06 2007
Asian News This Week
Casting a larger net this week in looking at what’s been happing around the rest of Asia.
Monday October 1
Japan switches on earthquake warning system
The system, which has been tested for more than a year, went into operation at 9a.m. local time and is operated by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA). It links together about 1,000 seismographs throughout Japan with a fast network and computing to calculate the location and strength of an earthquake within a few seconds of it occurring. The seismographs measure the weak but fast moving primary waves from an earthquake. These are followed by secondary waves, which move at about half the speed but which are much more destructive. The system attempts to beat the arrival of the secondary waves and provide a warning that strong shaking is about to occur.How much warning people have will depend on how far they are from the earthquake.
Oct 06 2007
just because it’s Friday
Aunt Helen 3/29/03
jaw clenched tight
so tight I thought maybe
your dentures were out
no rascally laugh from you
although the party
was in your honor
your reign has become solemn
something too piercing about your gaze
to say you are resigned
although you know…you are in transit
the veil evaporates about you
Heaven naked over your head
visible only to you
the cake did not amuse you either
this sugary message
that you are not expected
to live another two months
or survive your usual annual birthday party
something like the silent scream
of a great lion up a tree
surrounded by the houndshow do you feel about going
down that road
what went from you to me
you read me and I
heard it ring like
a bell
even out of earshot
your pronouncement
about me
your golden gavelthey’re too calm
about your passing
you and I shared this
in silence
from across a
cake with no candles
“ageless, you become”
say your children
the birthday of
no number –
“into the river of our tribe with you already”
Oct 06 2007
Burma, Darfur, Baghdad
The past week was rough around Spoonville. But then I think about what is going on in Burma, Darfur, and Baghdad…and there is just no comparison. I read somewhere that one’s subjective experience of suffering is relative to the last bad thing that happened. The enormity of what is going on in “conflict zones” is so difficult to grasp. Even so, the desire to “do something effective” gets more insistent every day.
Oct 06 2007
Who Killed Ciara Durkin?
Here is a story that needs more attention. From The Patriot Ledger:
Ciara Durkin was home on leave last month and expressed a concern to her family in Quincy: If something happens to me in Afghanistan, don’t let it go without an investigation.
Durkin, 30, a specialist with a Massachusetts National Guard finance battalion, was found dead last week near a church at the Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan. She had been shot once in the head, the Army says.
Fiona Canavan, Durkin’s older sister, said today that when her sister was home three weeks ago, she told family members that she had come across some things that concerned her and had raised objections to others at the base.
”She was in the finance unit and she said, ‘I discovered some things I don’t like and I made some enemies because of it.’ Then she said, in her light-hearted way, ‘If anything happens to me, you guys make sure it gets investigated,”’ Canavan said. ”But at the time we thought it was said more as a joke.”
The family did not know what she was referring to, said Canavan, who lives in Quincy.
Canavan said that her sister was openly gay, but that the family had no specific reasons to think that had anything to do with her death.
Oct 06 2007
Myanmar: UN-SC Takes Strong Position
Cross-Posted from Daily Kos
The UN Security Council met Friday in New York to receive a report from Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari.
Speaking in diplomatic but clear terms, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Gambari denounced the situation in Myanmar warning that sanctions could follow if Myanmar failed to respond quickly and appropriately, urging the Junta to meet with political opposition. Speaking in guardedly optimistic terms, Gambari indicated the Junta was prepared to meet with Aung San Suu Kyi.